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Find the latest information on the Coronavirus outbreak in Utah, including public health measures, contact information, news updates, and more.

Undisciplined: COVID-19 And Compounding Trauma

As a counselor and a researcher, Stacey Litam had focused her career on helping victims of sex trafficking to work through their trauma. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and while Litam’s previous work didn’t become less important, she began seeing a growing need for trauma counseling — just about everywhere.

Litam is a clinical counselor and an assistant professor of counseling at Cleveland State University. She has studied the effects of COVID-19 racial discrimination on Chinese Americans, she’s looked into the psychological distress suffered by healthcare workers, and she has examined the psychological plight of essential workers.

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.